Detox 2018…Pretentious “Buzz Word” or a legit health strategy?

Unless you’ve been totally off the health map for quite some time, you may well have heard of (or even be sick of hearing) the word”Detox”. Sadly the word is misunderstood and misrepresented by so many “Celebs”…so what actually is Detox, and how can it help transform your families long term health?

Quite simply to Detox is to “abstain from or rid the body of unhealthy substances”. OK, end of article, we can all go home now.

On a more serious note, it gets more complicated when we look at toxicity, where it comes from in it’s many forms and what we can actually do about it.

To simplify this topic, we are going to look at 3 areas, Lifestyle, Home in part 1, and Food & Drink in part 2. In the second article next week, we are going to share a few key nutrient pointers that can help to enhance your detoxification efforts.

Lifestyle

When looking at how to detox your lifestyle, this for many proves to be the very hardest area. Driving long journeys, hours behind a computer screen and juggling family commitments, school runs and the like…it’s hard, we totally get it but here’s a few pointers worth giving a try.

1) Break up your journey. If you are driving for 3 hours or more, every 2 hours take a 15-20 minute break. Take 2 minutes to sit, relax, take your mid elsewhere and breathe from the belly, not the chest. This greatly reduces cortisol levels (a stress hormone). This can dramatically help reduce stress induced fat placement around the midsection. Get up and walk a little for a great posture break.

2) Take posture breaks – If sat down for many hours each day, take posture breaks of 1-2 minutes every hour. Stand tall, place arms overhead, lean back, stretch. Neutral posture is what we strive for in nature. Neutral posture enables our tissues, nerves and organs to function optimally to promote health both whilst static and in movement.

3) Switch off Wifi at night. At night try to switch off all Wifi, smart meters, if you dare switch off your mobile phones! Avoid anything that can cause electrical or electromagnetic interference. There is growing evidence which suggests that long term exposure, even to very low levels can create health problems.

4) Move more! I’m sure we’ve covered this in previous articles. Seriously, as well as a host of benefits, simply moving helps to remove toxins.

5) Take Sauna’s – Yes our Swedish cousins have it right! Regular sauna use (Especially Infra-red sauna’s) help to remove toxins and top up glutathione (important antioxidant) levels.

6) Choose natural cosmetics and toiletries. Fewer chemicals and more organic – the better.

7) Practice mindfulness. Meditation, yoga, positive affirmations…it’s all good. Practice smiling, seriously it also reduces stress hormone release. If you are never going to try these…look at heart math on line, a great tool to reduce stress and look after your heart.

Home

OK, so we’ve had a brief look at a few Lifestyle strategies to reduce toxicity, now let’s look at a few ways of reducing toxicity in the home.

1) Get a kitchen tap filter, or drink quality bottled water. Why? TRUTH TIME…tap water…isn’t really all that great. We count our blessings that we can turn on the tap and have access to much cleaner water than many countries, however our water in many areas contains Fluoride (a neuro toxin, doesn’t promote tooth health either) and estrogen’s which are hormone disruptors, which are not good for anyone.

2) Avoid plastic food storage or use BPA free. Contaminants in plastic have been shown to contribute towards a host of health concerns. Instead, choose stainless steel or glass to store food and avoid plastic packaging where possible. Incidentally, drinking water from glass or stainless steel is also a great way to reduce toxicity at home.

3) Throw away non-stick pans. Anything non stick such as teflon is not ideal as accidentally overheating non stick pans can result in the release of surface particles and toxic gases. Whilst manufacturer’s claim this is minimal…we’d rather have none at all. Choose high quality stainless steel cookware and cook food a little slower on less heat. Food cooked this way has more nutrients and tastes better.

4) Add house plants. Plants add valuable oxygen to your home which helps to purify the air that you breathe.

5) Buy natural cleaning products. Organic, chemical free is best. Daily we subject ourselves to hundreds of chemicals that we weren’t exposed to a hundred years ago. If we can aim to reduce this, it’s in our best interests.

Part 2 of this article we will discuss a few simple steps to help reduce toxicity via nutrition.

Many reading this will quite rightly argue that we have an organ – our liver, dedicated to detoxification. I couldn’t agree more, the liver is incredible, however, it can only do so much and in an age where we are living more removed from natures design than at any other time, simple steps to help detox our bodies will greatly help promote health whilst giving our overworked liver a break.

Common sense alone tells us that to reduce our toxic load is a great idea. Everyone has a maximum toxic load which when reached promotes inflammation, disease or both. Let’s get back to nature whilst still embracing the good that 21st Century living brings.

Simply Awesome! : )